Introduction

Abstract

Crop protection by means of chemicals has become increasingly an object for public discussion from about the time when Rachel Carson published her book “Silent Spring”. According to the understanding of the basic concepts involved in this difficult scientific field, two lines of argument follow which tend to be ideological or of a more objective nature. One may regard chemical crop protection simply as a profit-induced poisoning of the environment or one can try to analyze the various factors that have compelled us to use chemical agents in the production of food.